Spiritual Dryness

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Everytime I pray now, I feel no joy. I feel like maybe I’m trying too hard to concentrate on actually connecting with God. I do not feel his presecence anymore. Any help?
 
I can’t help, but I can tell you that I am (and have often been) in that same boat. I am anxious to see what replies you receive.

Thanks for bringing up the topic.
 
i recommend reading the dark night of a soul, 👍 its by St. John of the Cross
 
I really haven’t felt his presence in years… I used to…but lately its like talking to a wall. I figured maybe I just don’t know how to pray properly. Or maybe my heart is hardened so much that God is answering, but I am not hearing it.

I have more feeling when I talk to my patron saint these days. So for now, I ask him to pray to God on my behalf. Right now, he is the bridge between me and God. And I ask him every day to guide me to the Lord, and to show me how to talk to God again.

Hopefully one day soon I will be able to recapture the relationship I once had with Him.
 
The biggest thing that helps me is to NOT make a big deal about the dryness. I have made the mistake of being afraid, thinking I was doing something wrong or that I must do something to change it. Then I go on this big quest of searching. None of it works to change it. I just have to wait for Jesus. I learned that everything is on HIS TERMS and in HIS TIMING. I make statements of love and faith even though there is no feeling backing them up and I pray that I have the grace to remain faithful no matter what! FYI: It is not a good idea to try too hard to FEEL an emotion. Honesty is the best policy. For example sometimes I say, “Hey Jesus, I’m just not feeling it today, I don’t really like that I’m not feeling it, I wish I were feeling it but It doesn’t matter I love you anyway!”

I ask Blessed Mother to help me know what pleases Jesus.

Don’t be afraid to ask Jesus for what you need. He may decide to give it to you but he may decide that it is not a good time. He knows what is best.
 
This is completely normal. The problem is people seek spiritual consolations rather than to pray for God’s sake. Spiritual dryness is the removal of those spiritual consolations. Just keep praying and seeking the sacraments.
 
I go through this as well, but I always remind myself that we are not supposed to look for “sweet meats” when it comes to feelings at prayer and devotion. It is faith that we should look too not feelings.
 
Living_Stats said:
Everytime I pray now, I feel no joy. I feel like maybe I’m trying too hard to concentrate on actually connecting with God. I do not feel his presecence anymore. Any help?
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I’ve been there. I’ve tried to keep reminding myself that it’s a test of faithfulness. God isn’t pulling away from you. During these trials, He is closer than ever. And the holier you are and the closer you are to Him, the harder (and longer) the trials become. It’s easy to follow God when you get enjoyment out of His Presence. It’s hard to remain faithful, pray, attend Mass, etc, when you don’t feel His Presence. When things feel bleak, remind Satan that you don’t plan on giving up regardless of how long it takes. Recognizing the trial for what it is can help you persevere.

What if the devil said “Yeah, Living Stats loves You now. But she wouldn’t love You if You stopped coddling her”. And God said “Oh, yeah? Watch.”. Because God knows your strength comes not from ‘good feelings’ but from His grace. And during times of spiritual dryness, His grace floods your soul.

So say “Whatever, devil. I’m not fooled by your tricks. And I’m not going to give in or give up! God’s got my back and I’m not giving up on Him anymore than He would give up on me. Go bother someone else”.

And then concentrate on what’s real and trust that the closeness you crave will be sweeter than you could imagine and will be your reward for your faithfulness.
 
Thanks Cat_L and CountrySteve. I had just read ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ and it was all good stuff. I hope it can help me more when I meditate and pray the Rosary, that’s where I feel the most “dry.”
 
I’m reading Ignatius’ “Spiritual Exercises”, and it’s really sinking in. He talks about
consolation, desolation, good spirits, bad spirits, the imagination producing thoughts and how we are to deal with them.

He has steps to follow and they are wonderful lessons to learn. I was told once that I needed to separate my intellectual thought from my emotional thought, but I was never told how. Ignatius gets right to the heart of it. And the improvement in thinking is really noticeable in oneself…

The Loyola Press has printed his work on Spiritual Exercises, and it’s very worth your time to read it and try practicing what St. Ignatius says. I can feel it helping me all day today.

Take care.

Genetic
 
Thank you His Follower. Ive been looking around for The Spiritual Exercises, but I cant seem to find any real instructions on them and I feel that the Jesuits aren’t quite so Catholic anymore…no offence, I just think they’ve lost touch with their origin.
 
I know what you are saying. There are many liberal Jesuits. However, Father Mitch Pacwa on EWTN is a Jesuit and he is very orthodoxy. It still depends on individual.
 
In the wonderful book “Light and Peace” by Carlo Giuseppe Quadrupani, the author teaches of St. Francis de Sales’s recommendation during times when it is difficult to pray (emphasis added):
You will sometimes imagine that at prayer your soul is not in the presence of God and that only your body is in the church, like the statues and candelabras that adorn the altars. Think, then, that you share with those inanimate objects the honor of serving as ornaments for the house of God, and that in the presence of your Creator even this humble role should seem glorious to you.
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“You tell me that you cannot pray well. But what better prayer could there be than to represent to God again and again, as you are doing, your nothingness and misery? The most touching appeal beggars can make is merely to expose to us their deformities and necessities. But there are times when you cannot even do this much, you say, and that you remain there like a statue. Well, even that is better than nothing. Kings and princes have statues in their palaces for no other purpose than that they may take pleasure in looking at them: be satisfied then to fulfill the same office in the presence of God, and when it so pleases Him He will animate the statue.”—St. Francis de Sales.
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When you have not consciously or voluntarily yielded to distractions, do not stop to find what may have been their cause, or to discover if you have in any way given occasion to them. This would be simply to weary and disquiet yourself unprofitably. From whatever direction they come, you can convert them into a source of merit by casting yourself into the arms of the Divine Mercy. St. Francis de Sales when asked how he prayed, replied: ‘I cannot say it too often—I receive peacefully whatever the Lord sends me. If he consoles me, I kiss the right hand of his mercy; if I am dry and distracted, I kiss the left hand of his justice.’ This method is the only good one, for as the same Saint says: ‘He who truly loves prayer, loves it for the love of God: and he who loves it for the love of God, wishes to experience in it naught but what God is pleased to send him.’ Now, whatever you may experience in prayer, is precisely what God wills.
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Sometimes I am exhausted because I’m trying to make mental prayer after 6:30a Mass when I only had 4 hours of sleep the night before, and I feel hurried to finish so that I’m not late for work, and some odd noise from outside is distracting me to no end. I simply look at the tabernacle and say, “Lord, here I am. It’s not much, but today, it’s all I have. I am making this time to simply be here, for you.” And I pray this with confidence that He knows that I am doing all that I can to love Him that day.
 
“Sometimes I am exhausted because I’m trying to make mental prayer after 6:30a Mass when I only had 4 hours of sleep the night before, and I feel hurried to finish so that I’m not late for work, and some odd noise from outside is distracting me to no end. I simply look at the tabernacle and say, “Lord, here I am. It’s not much, but today, it’s all I have. I am making this time to simply be here, for you.” And I pray this with confidence that He knows that I am doing all that I can to love Him that day.”

Yeah I can definetly feel you there, as I get like only 5 hours of sleep a night on average:shrug: and the quote from the book was really enlightening as well. But I mean have you ever prayed a Rosary and felt the exhaustion and dryness as you try to pray each Hail Mary?
 
Living_Stats said:
. . . But I mean have you ever prayed a Rosary and felt the exhaustion and dryness as you try to pray each Hail Mary?
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All who pray experience this from time to time or even for extended periods. When we pray even when we don’t feel enthusiasm it’s part of growing a healthy spiritual life - a life that is lived by faith, not by fleeting emotions.
 
Thanks FCEGM, it seems like I took God for granted instead of just accepting what he has given to me through prayer, whether it was joy or emotions or answers to petition.Maybe I should just reflect on the fact that he is in us and us in him (is that heretical? It sounds like cheesy ********, but it is true technically). And that he loves us, and is willing to make us stronger and demands more from us than the aforementioned things.
 
Mother Teresa struggled with spiritual dryness for many years.
Read “Come Be My Light” biography of Mother Teresa.
 
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